The Pros And Cons Of Food Labeling

INTRODUCTION

Within the last several years, there has been a dramatic increase in food-related litigation challenging labels on products as misleading and deceptive. In particular, today’s growing numbers of class actions suits are accusing companies of making false claims regarding the nutritional content of its products.

The initial wave of class action litigation filed against food manufacturers challenged a variety of claims, such as terms, “trans-fat free” and “all-natural” or “100 percent natural”, used to label products. See, e.g., Garrison v. Whole Food Market Inc., No. 13-05333 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 8, 2013). At the first outbreak of the food labeling lawsuits, plaintiffs’ bar initially attacked these suits with a variety of legal theories, but struggled to overcome common defenses, such as lack of standing, preemption, and primary jurisdiction. Furthermore, regulatory agencies, such as the U.S Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), have continued to refrain from providing sufficient guidance to food manufacturers, specifically as to what constitutes “natural” or “all natural.”

To date, new case developments show focus has shifted to narrower claims and stronger approach to surviving motions, such as dismissal, summary judgment and class certification. Moreover, federal, state and local government are beginning to take more of an active role in regulating and enforcing compliance in connection to food labeling. In the coming year, attention most likely will be focused on the FDA and state legislative developments on food labeling claims.

OUTBREAK OF “NATURAL” LAWSUITS

Most prevalent consumer fraud class actions frequently target the use of the term “natural” to describe certain foods or beverages containing artificial ingredien...

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...nd local government authorities remain active in enforcement related to food labeling. FDA and FTC have been collaborating together to issue warning letters. They have forced settlements from a variety of companies including the pomegranate juice manufacturer POM Wonderful over misleading and unsubstantiated claims about the products’ health benefits.

CONCLUSION

As food labeling has quickly become one of the most active areas of litigation, the body of case law concerning food labeling will continue to grow. It may be too soon to state whether these lawsuits will remain a legitimate threat to the food industry, but certainly the result has been a dramatic increase in putative class action lawsuits, a trend that will likely continue as the Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration take a more active role in assessing food labeling and advertising.